Backyard Adventure. . .

The girls were gone so little man and I had a backyard adventure. Come along and see what we found. . .

A HUGE female Black and Yellow Garden Spider. . .


A less creepy spider. . .

New flowers. . .




Old flowers. . .


I haven't been in the playhouse in a while. I was delighted to find this display. . .

Much to Little Man's delight we found this caterpillar. We got out the identification book and found it to be a Fall Webworm. . .


We also discovered that the three enormous trees in our front yard are Bur Oak. . .

We are having gorgeous weather. Hope you are enjoying the outdoors too! Teresa

New Bagette!

Introducing our newest (and youngest and cutest) bagette. This is Bagette Brooke, she is wonderful, 14 and wants to start an environmental club at her high school. We think she is absolutely wonderful. Welcome Brooke!

Here she is sewing on a machine that was donated by a fabulous woman in Texas who found out about the Green Bag Lady project and donated this great machine. It works wonderfully and will now be used by Brooke. Thanks Maureen Paris Bennett for your generous donation! Teresa

Brooke's first bag. . .

Working hard. . .

A few moments later, she had five bags finished! You sew girl. . .

Verde Goh General Store Event

We went to Franklin, TN last night to the wonderful Verde Goh general store. What a nice community that is located in Westhaven Town Center. It was great to have people stop in while they were out walking their dogs and we enjoyed the many children who picked out bags too!

Fabric bag, check, blankie (in bag), check, eco friendly truck, check, ready for the world. . .

This is the daughter of Josh Womack, Verde Goh's owner. Isn't she darling?

We LOVE it when people donate fabric at events! Thank you ladies!



Bagette Connie and Bagette Kathleen were my wonderful helpers. . .

I hope you are having a wonderful Saturday morning. I would love to tell you that I awoke to the sound of birds singing and lightly tapping rain on the window sill. Kinds screaming at each other was more like it. . .Teresa

Rainy Day. . .

This is how it went this rainy Friday morning. . .

Little Man: "Mom, why can't I have a new raincoat?"

Mom: "Why? That one is fine and still fits you and keeps you dry."

Little Man: "I know, but it has a big hood and a tiny hood and I can't see out of the tiny hood!"

Have a beautiful weekend. Teresa

Come join us tonight!

Come join us tonight from 5-7pm HERE!

Teresa and the Bagettes

On any given Sunday. . .

The Bagettes and I get together most Sundays and cut, iron, gab, eat chocolate, bring goodies to share, etc. Here is a peak at last Sunday. . .

April brought birds she has been making, inspired by the Spool pattern linked from this post. . .

Bagette Alicia learned to sew!!!! We are so proud. She has always been a pro at cutting and working the events but now. . .

Alicia and her first bag! You sew girl!

Then, last Monday, I walked into the mail room by my office and gasped in delight! Sitting on the floor was a large box of fabric from Amy Butler! I didn't even know it was coming so it made it even more sweet. We have LOVED sewing this fabric! Look at these beautiful bags. Thank you Amy Butler!

Here are the Bagettes modeling some of the finished Amy Butler bags. . .from L to R, Bagette Ann, Bagette Connie, Bagette April, Bagette Karen, Bagette Alicia. . .


Thank you ladies! You are fabulous! Teresa

How cool/green is this???

New Designers 09: Northumbria University graduate Jack Bresnahan exhibited a series of biodegradable, plastic lids for turning used tin cans into household containers at graduate show New Designers in London recently. In an attempt to breathe new life into old rubbish, Jack has created a range of 9 different biodegradable plastic lids, that can be placed on the top of a freshly-washed baked beans can for example and transform its purpose. From a vase to a soap dispenser, a sugar pourer to toothbrush holder, money box to desk tidy and tea and coffee canisters, these stylish lids take tin cans to a whole new level. Green issues are at the heart of everything that Jack Bresnahan does. A passionate believer that designers must take responsibility for their designs from conception to disposal, Jack feels that ‘anything that ends up in landfill is simply poor design’. Read/see more here.

Australia Bags!

IPSWICH, AUSTRALIA BAGS

Hi Teresa and Dave,

I received both bags today... Thank you sooooo much, I couldn't wait but to photograph them immediately however, husband Dan wasn't around at that time. I love them and have already put them in my handbag ready for immediate use. Thank you for what you do - you definitely are making a difference in the world.

I have attached some photo's. Thanks.

Micky
xxoo

This is Great TOO!!!

Hi Teresa! How are you?
Sorry it took so long to write and I loved the bag I got from you guys...
but never took a picture of it. I promise I'll do it soon.

I don't know if you remember but I was organizing activities for children
and one of the plans was to inspire them to use fabric bags. So, since we
were in a coffee farm they painted coffee sacks to turn it into ecobags.

It was so much fun and they just loved it. Since you inspired me and helped
me to see it was possible to use coffee sacks, here are some pictures I'd
like to share with you.

So, when I said at the blog that IF i get I bag I'd give someone else one, I
kept the promise. 60 kids now have coffee sack bags to help minimize our
impact on the environment.

We will keep in touch..and I promise to soon send a picture of myself with
the bag I got from Bagette Dad.

Peace

Marina from Brazil

This is Great!!!

Hi Teresa,

We had a very successful and fun time yesterday, creating seven lovely bags, and bottoms and handles to get us up and running quickly when the group meets again in two weeks. We worked at the Common House of Blueberry Hill Cohousing Community, where three of us live.

The iron-on labels we will use say:

ESA Green Bag #
Made by a volunteer for
EcostewardsAlliance.org
Thanks greenbaglady.org

We started out with quite a lot of interesting fabric and threads, and three experienced sewers. The other two of us cut and ironed to speed up hemming tops and sewing the handles. One participant donated a book for keeping a record of bags given away - we plan to record the date, bag number, and home town of the recipient. I think it adds a little ceremony to the giving away of a bag which is done when an individual promises to use the bag instead of paper or plastic. Do you have any other suggestions for the actual turning over of a bag to a recipient? We are working toward giving away bags at an event the first Friday in October.

Thanks Teresa!

Rebecca

Namemaker

One of our kind sponsors has started a blog. They are highlighting the different ways in which people use their labels. Go check out their latest post. . .

Also, thanks to everyone who left comments for the Back to School FREEBIE. Bagette Dad will be in contact with you soon!

Teresa

Back to School. . .FREEBIE!!!

Little Girl and Big Girl went back to school today. Second grade and fifth grade respectively, wow! In honor of kids going back to school everywhere, we are doing a FREEBIE to remind you to be GREEN or GREENER this school year.

How can you go back to school and be GREEN? I'm glad you asked. Re-use as many things as you can from last year.

1) Don't buy a new backpack. My girls use the same backpack from K-3 (small pack) and then 4 on up (big pack for more books). Of course, if it falls apart, we will get a new one. We like this kind for it's durability (we have not had one fall apart yet!).
2) Reuse pencil cases, erasers, pens, etc. that still have life in them.
3) Buy recycled paper, pencils made from recycled newspaper (available at Target), recycled notebooks, pencils boxes made from recycled plastic (also at Target), you get the point.
4) Clothes, use as many hand-me-downs as possible. OR, give clothes that are too small to a friend or family member. We are lucky that uniforms wear well and can be handed down many times.
5) Use the same lunch box as last year. We like these because they are Eco-friendly acrylic-coated cotton, PVC -free, 100% lead-free AND machine washable.
6) Forgo the bottled water and get a great reusable bottle. We like these.

Ok, yes, yes, the FREEBIE. We still want as many people as possible to be toting fabric bags when they go shopping. Not just the grocery store, but ALL shopping, even school shopping. If you already have a Green Bag Lady bag, then please send a friend to the site to leave a comment for a bag. We would love to give them one and spread the message. We have several light ones on hand ready to ship!

SO, if you do not already have a shopping bag, leave a comment AND your EMAIL ADDRESS at this post spelling out DOT and AT in your email so you don't get spam. In your comment, tell us how you are going GREEN this back to school. We would love to hear your ideas. Please tell us if you can add to the above list.

Comments for a FREE SHOPPING BAG will close at midnight Wednesday, August 19, 2009 CST. We are looking forward to hearing from you! You will hear from Bagette Dad who will get your snail mail address and send you a bag ASAP.

Teresa and all the Bagettes

Summer Sewing

There is much summer sewing going on here. Not just bags but projects I have been trying to get done around the house. I found this bird mobile project free on line and couldn't resist. Little Girl loved it so much that she wanted to have it in her room. So, she helped with the cutting, stuffing sewing and ADMIRING the finished product in her room.

Step 1 tracing pattern pieces--I LOVE these marking pens that disappear in 2 days or wash out easily. . .

Step 2 cutting

Step 3 & 4 sewing and stuffing


Step 5 picking thread for sewing the seems (this is a step I added, not on the original pattern)

Some finished birds. . .


Done birds. . .

Top side. . .

Under side. . .

With the help of Bagette Dad, we finished the mobile (fabrics are from various sources but include Harmony Art and Amy Butler) and hung it up in Little Girl's room. . .


Happy Little Girl. . .

Check back tomorrow for a BACK TO SCHOOL FREEBIE!!! Teresa